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THE FOURTEEN-FOLD PATH TO FREEDOM
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that still await him. First a person had identified himself with his body, with his possessions, his status, the compliments or rebukes he receives etc., and everything he met in life was judged as either pleasant or unpleasant. He had identified himself with his ego, thinking that his personal willpower is the real actor in life, thus feeling proud when something had been accomplished, or frustrated when some personal aim had failed. Thus, unknowingly, he has always been trying to work against the spiritual laws of nature, to row against the stream of the spirit. In this way the cycle of bondage was continued. Now his attention is entirely redirected and becomes wholly focused on his own nature (svabhāva). Outer things, his body, possessions, psychological conditions such as anger, fear, hatred, self-pity, pride, passions, greed are no longer of paramount interest. He becomes interested in seeing the self within, in knowing the spiritual side of nature rather than outer appearances. In this way gains a great pureness of mind and behavior, which will enable him to practice the purity in motivation and conduct and the one-pointedness that are needed to follow the path further towards its ultimate goal. For the world around him, he has become a more peaceful, tranquil, stable and patient person and naturally shows what the Hindu Bhagavad-Gītā describes as the characteristics of the wise: equal under all circumstances, cold or hot, praise or humiliation, prosperity or loss, etc. He knows now that there is an essential nature behind the veil of illusion he had thus far regarded as realities. But of he now realizes that these “realities” are transitory. They are nothing but "modes*%« of an inherently free and omniscient living soul. This applies to all forms of life, all living beings, all of which are forms of expression of an essential core, which is of a fundamental allencompassing conscious nature.
At once one realizes the brotherhood of all beings, that all beings have a soul with the highest innate qualities, and that every living being has the innate possibility to reach its spiritual summit. This awareness of brotherhood brings forth strong feelings of compassion (anukampā) for all beings.
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